A Game of Go
by jasonc65
Summary: Wouldn't it be funny if Joey and Yugi were there usual characters while playing at go?


Introduction: I thought it would be amusing to watch Yu-Gi-Oh characters being their usual selves while playing at go. I'm sure this fic will suck, but here goes nothing. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, and I don't own Exodia. RPG's are not my thing. But I do have a go set if anyone wants to play me.

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A Game of Go

Yugi and Joey were playing a game of go. Now, go is a strategy game like chess. It is played by taking turns plopping stones down on a 19x19 grid. The rules allow one to remove stones that have been completely surrounded. The object of the game is to surround territory. Now, Joey had lost interest in card games since finding the local go club. He had quickly acquired such proficiency at the game that he was soon ranked at 3 ku. Meanwhile, Yugi had retained his interest in games like Dual Monsters and Magic the Gathering, and therefore had less time for go. Nevertheless, he was interested enough to learn. So Yugi and Joey were sharing books and discussing strategy and tactics one day, when Seto Kaiba suddenly dropped by.

Kaiba said, "So, I've heard that you are all the rage at the go club".

Joey flinched. _Was this another challenge_?

Kaiba continued, "I found the exodia cards you lost on that ship. They had washed up at the beach". He held them in his hand.

With a leap for joy and an expression of delight on his face, Yugi said, "Why, thanks".

But as he was reaching for the cards, Kaiba withdrew his hand and said, "But you can only have them if Joey beats me in a game of go".

Joey said, "I'm willing to take you on".

So they got out Joey's go board.

Before they started playing, Kaiba interjected, "Since I'm a 1-dan, I should give you three stones".

Hence Joey set up three black stones at the handicap points and Kaiba started out with an ikken tobi, which here is a Japanese phrase for placing a stone a distance of two points from a hostile stone, a typical way to contest territory without immediately starting hand-to-hand combat. Joey proceeded to take the fourth corner, and the opening proceeded at a rapid pace, with both players following joseki themes with which they were intimately familiar. Kaiba played very agressively, playing his stones where they seemed very likely to be killed, an assertive gesture indicating a definite intent to invade. Such gambit play is usually risky. Joey defended well and connected solidly, keeping his advantage. When it seemed that he had a strong enough position, he proceeded to agressively attack Kaiba's vulnerable stones. It seemed like he was sure to win. Yet Kaiba managed to stay alive by playing sharply, making well-timed cuts right when he needed to. As Kaiba hardly made any life anywhere on the board, the game soon became a global semeai, where each side was racing to capture the other. It appeared that there was going to be no endgame. Indeed, you could say it was almost a chess game at this point. A ko fight broke out near the end, a repititive situation which is complicated by the rule forbidding immediate repititions, and both players made very skillful ko threats, which are zwischenzug-like moves played for no other purpose than to legally recapture in a ko. By the time the ko threats ran out, there was almost no place left to play a stone. However, as Kaiba won the ko fight, he kept his huge group alive. Since there was no life except for a few small groups at the corners, you could almost say that the whole board was one gigantic seki. Thus the players had nothing to do at the end, but fill in the dame, which in this game were almost everywhere, count the precious little territory they had, and count the numerous prisoners they had exchanged during the ko.

When they finally completed the counting, and it appeared that Joey had won by one point, Kaiba suddenly threw the board, scattering the stones everywhere and took off with the exodia cards he had pocketed.

"That's not fair! I won!" exlaimed Joey, but it was no use. Kaiba was too quick to catch. So Joey and Yugi proceeded to do the only thing that made sense, which was to clean up the mess which Kaibo had rudely left behind.


End file.
